


Fire although dangerous is beautiful too.

by preserumstevie



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Cute, Eventual Katara/Zuko (Avatar), F/M, Firebending & Firebenders, Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Burnish?, Sokka - Freeform, Waterbending & Waterbenders, Zutara, aang - Freeform, idk what else to tag lol, toph - Freeform, zutara fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:26:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24936010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preserumstevie/pseuds/preserumstevie
Summary: Katara never really trusted Zuko, he was dangerous. After some late night talks her opinion on Zuko changes entirely.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Zuko/Katara, Zutara - Relationship
Comments: 6
Kudos: 64





	Fire although dangerous is beautiful too.

**Author's Note:**

> hi um i just love zutara and wanted to write sum cute shit abt them! pls spare kudos and comments if you think i deserve them <3

It started with those three words. "Hello, Zuko here." Of course, she had known who he was, they all did. He had been hunting them since they had set off on their adventure to train Aang. Immediately they all turned ready to fight, Katara herself had her water ready force Zuko off the temple if necessary. She had very adamantly expressed her mistrust for Zuko and not wanting him on the team but eventually, he had won the rest of them over. Seeing him at dinner every day was a fresh shock to her, she tried to keep away from him as much as possible. Anytime Aang had tried to rope her into a conversation with Zuko she would respond dismissively and turn away to go practice waterbending, they all had this notion of trust with Zuko but she still couldn't get over the betrayal of Ba Sing Se. 

It seemed though that every attempt to push him away only spurred him on more which she had to admit was beginning to take its toll, she caught herself slipping up and laughing at a few of his jokes here and there only to excuse her self to her room immediately. 

The battle that would have to take place soon after Aang learned firebending had her up late one night deep in thought, she threw a ball of water between her hands back and forth rhythmically thinking of all the ways this could go wrong and all how then all hope would be lost. A soft knock at her door caused her to lose all concentration and drop the water on herself, splattering all around her bed. Momentarily she huffed a "hold on" before bending the water off the bed and her clothing before storing it and walking to her door. Opening it she was shocked to see Zuko standing there a sheepish smile on his face as he scratched the back of his neck. Before he could speak she quirked an eyebrow and asked "Can I help you?"

The small smile he had dropped and he spoke quietly "Well I was just wondering if you wanted to talk, you're swishing water so hard I'm sure everyone in a 3-mile radius can hear you." He looked up at her awaiting the door to close in his face, adding on quickly "I know you do that when you think, Sokka told me. Anyways I couldn't sleep either." Katara looked at him steadily and sighed "I guess. But don't think this makes us friends." She quickly stepped around him and began to walk towards where the fountain in the common area was so as not to disturb anyone in the rooms nearby. Zuko followed behind silently. 

Honestly, she couldn't see the harm in talking to him because he knew the group's plan anyway so it didn't matter if she shared fears about losing seeing as it was very possible and it would be nice to get it off her chest for once. Reaching the edge of the fountain she sat herself down on it and waited for him absentmindedly getting water from the fountain and passing it back in forth between her fingers. As he approached she saw him go to sit down next to her but a little too close for comfort so she swished the water she was holding in front of her pushing him to sit further away, Zuko offered a small shrug and sat down at the edge of where she had splashed the water.

"...So what's on your mind?" he asked, and looking down at her fingers she began slowly "it's just, I don't know I'm nervous about facing the Firelord. Aang hasn't mastered firebending, and we don't even have a plan. Our people have been captured and imprisoned so it's really just us against the whole of the fire nation." As she spoke the water rhythmically moved faster between her hands. She continued on a little more rushed this time "I know Aang is a good bender he mastered waterbending almost quicker than I did but firebending has proven to take longer than even earthbending and that was really a struggle for him." Trying to lighten the conversation a bit Zuko joked "well firebending is more difficult than waterbending what did you expect?" Which earned him a swift whack on the head with a small frozen ball of ice and Katara's icy glare. "Sorry, sorry" he held his hands out in his defense, "Listen Aang is coming along, it is truly difficult to master seeing as you must be in control of it at all times lest you not hurt the things or people around you. He's taking it slow but maybe it's better that way. " He skipped over the prisoners part because he wasn't sure there was a bright side to that. "We'll come up with a plan, you guys rarely seem to have them and always end up okay, and with me on the team we have all the elements anyways it will be okay." 

She turned her head away at his words, "This is the problem with you guys. This isn't just any old scheme we used to get up to this is the Firelord and the entirety of the fire nation." She shook her head fiercely "We have to consider the possibility that some of us may get gravely injured, or die." She turned to face him again, " Or we could lose." Her tone became one of dejectedness almost like she was admitting defeat right there and then. Zuko spoke carefully then not wanting to upset her more but also knowing that she, of course, had a point, even if they had the four elements, and Sokka, on their side it was a very possible thing. "I know. But I know my father, I know how he controls everything with fear. I think that once the army sees that he has been taken down they won't fight too hard so really once Aang", his voice faltered for a moment lacking the words to speak, "... gets him the army will fall too." 

Those words served as a bit of relief to Katara. For once someone admitted the possibility of losing but also helped her feel more optimistic about their chances by providing concrete evidence as to how it might actually be easy to win, or at least easier to win. For a moment she couldn't help but feel for Zuko, it was his dad they were speaking of killing or as he so lovingly puts it "getting". With reluctance she sighed out an "I guess that's true." She then got up, returned the water to its place in the fountain and turned to him "I'm going to go to bed now." she spoke simply, then turned and headed for her room without waiting for him to respond. Before turning down the hall that lead to the bedrooms she turned back momentarily "Thank you, this helped." His head perked up a bit and a smile replaced the seemingly permanent frown he wore, Katara didn't notice though because she kept her eyes level on the ground as she spoke keeping them there as she turned back around and headed for her room leaving him in the quiet.

The next morning she had to admit that she had slept better than most nights at the temple but she blamed it on the fact that it had been a tiring day of training and dealing with Sokka. The day passed by pretty uneventfully, Toph made herself busy by rebuilding pieces of the temple that had broken, Aang and Zuko practiced their bending, and Sokka was trying to help her master sword-wielding in case she needed it. She couldn't say she was necessarily happy with the idea but then again it could come in handy so she let Sokka talk her ear off and show her some of his moves before trying it herself. As their training session came to an end Sokka announced that it was time for dinner and joked that class was dismissed before walking toward the common area where Toph already sat eating with Momo on her shoulder, she trailed behind and sat herself down next to Sokka waiting to hear Toph's stories for the day. As Toph was speaking about rebuilding one of the rooms that seemed to be some sort of greenhouse Aang and Zuko came walking over and sat down to join them for dinner. "Well I think it was a greenhouse room because I could feel sunlight coming in from the side of the room where a hole had been dug clear through the mountainside Sokka, and I don't suppose they just wanted some sunlight it had to have been for a reason dummy" Toph spoke with a bit of a rough edge in an answer to Sokka because he had been laughing about the notion of the past Airbenders even having a greenhouse room.

Aang easily jumped into the conversation with glee "Toph! You found one of my favorite rooms, as vegetarians we always tried to make sure there was someplace for us to grow vegetables so of course this temple would have one too Sokka." Sokka just looked between them dumbfoundedly and dug into his food instead of giving them a witty comment. Aang then turned to her and asked "Katara could you transfer some water there? I know it'll take a few trips but maybe we could have our own mini-farm here. It would feel more like home." She looked at him for a second and spoke evenly "I suppose I could but really don't we have more pressing matters at hand?" The entire group began to argue against her, telling her she worried too much and that she needed to lighten up a bit. As they quieted down she spoke again "I never said I wouldn't but I was just pointing out the glaringly obvious." Zuko's voice piped up from across the circle, "she is right you know, we're heading into the most intense battle of our lives and you are all thinking of gardening" before he returned to his food. A small smile adorned her face as she looked at Zuko in thanks who continued eating. The rest of them looked back and forth for a moment before Sokka teased him "well of course you would say that Mr. I'm a brooding teenager I need to kill everyone's fun." With a laugh, Toph jumped in too "yeah, of course, you two worrywarts would side with each other" and earned herself a high five from Sokka and a laugh from everyone but Zuko who simply shrugged and offered a small smile.

After everyone had told their mini adventures of the day they all retired to the respective rooms for the night wishing each other goodnights and sleep well's. As Katara slipped into bed she tossed and turned for a while before succumbing to a small amount of sleep only to be awakened by a nightmare. Instead of returning to sleep she rolled over and lit her small bedside lamp and grabbed her canister of water opening the top. Sitting criss-cross on the bed she began to play with the water sending it like a waterfall from one hand to the other and letting it pool in the hand on the bottom for a moment before returning it to her hand that was raised. This time when the knock came it didn't surprise her as much, she slipped the water back into the canister and hopped off her bed to open the door. 

"Can't sleep again?" Zuko said leaning against the doorframe. She just shook her head, he outstretched his hand and beckoned for hers as an open invitation to go to the common area. She slipped past his hand and began to walk down the hall towards the fountain and like the night before Zuko trailed behind her. As she sat down she gathered water and slid it between her fingers, this time Zuko sat at a distance that seemed appropriate and she was glad she hadn't needed to use water to scare him back again. "Is it the same thing again?" he began and she nodded "I slept for a while, but I dreamt we had lost. I dreamt that Ozai had killed us all and I was the last of us trying to heal Aang who was clearly not waking but eventually Ozai got to me too. That's when I woke up I guess." Silence filled the area for a moment before Zuko broke it with "I can't ever see you going down without a fight, I mean hell, you used to whip me silly" she laughed a bit at this not being able to help herself. She didn't really want to speak about them losing anymore so she opted for "yeah, I'd give him hell before I went down." As she continued to trail water through her fingers.

A bit passed before Zuko spoke again in agreement "Yeah, you would." He then leaned forward watching her hands "hey... do you think maybe you could teach me how to do that?" Her eyes shot up to look at him incredulously for a moment. He then realized what she understood wrong "no, no I meant like the hand movements I know I couldn't do it with water. It's just that when I was learning firebending it was mostly to inflict pain, puffing out fire not keeping it in my hands or close to my body." Katara once again had to feel for him, all he had ever known was malice and it wasn't fair to hold it against him especially since he was very obviously with them now and was trying to be a better person. "Yeah I can teach you, come here for a moment," she said moving closer with her free hand reaching for one of his. 

Scooting forward Zuko let his left hand fall into her right, and she accepted it immediately angling it the way her left hand was angled. Moving to his fingers she separated them feeling how warm they were against her cool palm. "Now this may be a bit different for you because water is more fluid and tends to stay together but if you move your fingers like so" she paused her statement to demonstrate her fingers waving back and forth and then used her right hand to move his fingers in a similar manner "you should be able to move fire between them". She moved back for a moment watching him move his fingers back and forth, "great! Now try it with fire but start small because when I started water hit my fingers a lot." She watched as Zuko created a small ball of fire in his hand and began to transfer it to his fingers, moving his fingers back and forth the fire stream began to weave through his fingers almost leaping around. For a moment she was breathless as the small flame danced along through his slender fingers, fire could be beautiful, dangerous yes but beautiful too. She watched as he looked up at her with a smile playing along his lips one came onto hers as well matching his own. "Hey this isn't too hard and you sai-" Zuko's small moment of triumph was cut short when a bit of the flame flickered heavily and for a moment too long on his pinky, a small anguished cry left his lips and the fire diminished leaving them in the dark. Immediately she reached for his hand, "let me see" she said concern lacing into her voice as she used the water in her left hand to cover the darkened red spot on his pinky, he sucked in a breath as the skin turned from the angry red it was to a light pink and then back to his normal skin tone. 

Tutting at him she let his hand fall from hers "I told you to be careful didn't I?" He laughed gently at this "that you did." They sat for a moment until Katara had an idea "here I'll do it for you put your fingers out and do the movements" he did as she said and she let her fingers hover over his own and let the water weave through his fingers. Once again the smile returned to his face, it was as if he was waterbending himself. Her own smile lifted but soon left as a warm sensation flooded her face at how oddly intimate this was, her sharing her waterbending and letting it run through his fingers, it just felt too close. Retracting her hand she pointed out how late it was getting with a yawn "We should head to bed the moon is going to go to bed soon herself, we've both got long days of training ahead of us." She stood herself and wished Zuko a goodnight before turning to walk down the hall again leaving him in the quiet. 

The next morning she felt unmistakably refreshed again but easily shook it off. The day passed the same as all have and she gets better at sword-wielding, even earning herself a high five from Sokka when she nearly knocks him off his feet with a wooden sword. When night comes she's almost expecting the knock at her door. The following two weeks continue with the same schedule aside from her taking the time to bring water into that new greenhouse Toph has built, each day she can feel herself opening up more to Zuko, she didn't mind his presence anymore, in fact, she looked forward to it. Now when night fell she actually opened her canister based on the fact that Zuko would appear at her door with that same small grin he always had. This night was no different, when she opened the canister and held a ball of water in her hand she waited for the knock and opened the door with a small smile, recently they had taken up staying in Katara's room and opting to shut the door instead of walking all the way to the common area. It had started when Zuko complained about how she always left him by himself in the quiet with a pout so the very next night she let him into her room instead. Walking the small way back to her bed she sat at the head of the bed watching as Zuko closed the door gently and sat in the middle of the bed. 

"Well, fire Prince Zuko show me your moves" she speaks teasingly referring to the new move she had taught him which was rolling water, or in his case fire, from one hand across her arm and rolling across her shoulders down the other arm and finally to rest in the hand opposite of which it started. They both knew these moves were never meant for fighting but it was fun to play with bending every now and again. He gave her a small laugh and flickered a ball of fire into his palm rolling it over his hands and across his shoulders, and down the other arm into his hand. By the time the fire had reached his other palm, she could smell burned hair and Zuko who had been so happy with his victory hadn't even noticed that strands of his hair at the base of his neck had caught fire, springing into action she slapped water across the hair that was burning and hit his neck in the process laughing. "Zuko do you want to be bald again?" she asked through fits of laughter as Zuko turned to her with a hand over his now wet neck also not being able to help but let a laugh escape him. "Hey! Dry me off, it was the first time I actually did it, and luckily didn't burn too much of it in the process" he exclaimed pouting at her and feeling at the back of his neck where his hair had burned slightly as she flicked her hand and returned the water to her palm. Finally settling herself down she looked over at him again and almost burst out into laughter "Sorry, sorry I should be more considerate." she said a small smile still playing at her lips. He only pouted jokingly at her which not only made her laugh all over again but made her think about how glad she was they had actually begun to have these talks because it led to her noticing this very different side of Zuko. The normal Zuko wasn't a jokester or someone who strayed far from the schedule and was solemn most if not all of the time, but this Zuko was almost tailored to her joking at all the right moments and being serious when necessary.

After their laughter subsided Katara put her water back in the canister that was on her nightstand, this usually was the signal for the night's end and Zuko went to stand up but she quickly held her hand out "wait." she said softly, moving forward to sit closer to him "do you remember when you first water bended through me?" She asked him and he nodded his head at the fond memory, since then they had done it many times to get Zuko used to moves before using them with fire especially if it concerned being on or around his body. "Well I've been thinking, maybe I could firebend through you?" The question sat heavy in the air for a second as Zuko moved back a bit subconsciously. "I don't know Katara," he said looking away from her towards his feet that dangled off the bed "I don't want to hurt you by accident." She knew this was coming but she had decided that she wanted to, seeing Zuko play with fire these past weeks made her really want to "firebend" as well as the fact that she thought there could be almost no harm if she simply held it in her palm "I know you wouldn't hurt me Zuko, I trust you." His head flicked up at that, gold eyes piercing into her own, "you trust me?" he asked voice so low she could barely hear him. "Yes, I trust you." she spoke back equally as quiet. The attitude in the room shifted very suddenly from joking to something different, she couldn't put her finger on what it was but it wasn't something she disliked. Trying to lighten things up a bit she joked "hey I've always got water if I do get burned." But she realized quickly Zuko wasn't in the mood for joking as he reached his hand out for hers with a look of determination. She held one finger up signaling for him to give her a moment, she reached back to turn off her lamp and then faced him again barely being able to see his outline in the dark. She knew fire was beautiful and the first time she "held" it she wanted to experience it in all its glory. She moved herself closer to him and put her right hand out, his left moved over it to create a ball sized flame in his hand and let the fire slowly drop into her palm. She couldn't hold back her smile, the heat from the flame felt so warm in her hands and it seemed as though the flame stemmed from her own palm. She wiggled her fingers and he followed suit making the flame dance in her palm and show more oranges and yellows. She was enamored by the flame and for a moment she wished she could be a firebender too, she wondered if Zuko felt the same when she had him "waterbend" and looked up at him, the flame still dancing on her palm, only to find that he had been looking at her and not the flame. The same feeling of intimacy that she had felt when she shared her powers with him the first time came flooding back only this time she didn't feel the need to run.

The flame diminished as she pushed her palm further up into his own until it died completely as her palm touched his, turning so that they were aligned and their fingertips were touching. It felt as though she wasn't in control of her own body, as if he was using bloodbending against her. She didn't know what she was doing all she knew was that it felt right, in the darkness all she could see was Zuko's golden eyes watching her and the outline of him. His breathing was slow and hers matched his pace but was quickening as their fingers began to interlock, feeling the stark contrast in the warmness of his skin and the coolness of hers brought her an exhilarating rush. For a moment she hesitated, did she want to push him away? The person in front of her was the person who only two short weeks ago she basically hated, but this wasn't that same person she hated. This was Zuko, and she trusted him. As she leaned forward closer to him and their breaths began to mingle she also quickly realized that she liked him, extremely so because being so close was tantalizing. She couldn't hold out any longer. 

Closing the gap between them she captured his lips in a kiss, his right hand reached forward to grab her waist in an effort to bring her closer. The kiss was one that carried a fierceness to show how much each of them felt for the other. She slowly dropped his hand and climbed into his lap unwilling to break the kiss and brought her hand up to the back of his neck pushing into his hair. She felt the hand that he had dropped quickly be placed on her waist so that he was fully holding her. They stayed like this for what felt like hours though Katara knew it had only been mere minutes. Eventually, when she pulled back she rested her forehead on his keeping her eyes closed and both of them breathed for a moment in the dark not wanting to break the silence. When her eyes opened they were met with Zuko's to which she couldn't help but smile, that smile widening when he returned his signature grin. They stayed in each other embrace just studying each other for a moment before Zuko spoke up "Katara, I like you, a lot. I mean truly I do. I can't express how much I've wanted to do this for a while now." She leaned forward again to kiss him sweetly this time, gentleness flooded through them. Her hands found their way to hold his face, when they separated she kept them there "honestly, I was trying to fight my own feelings but," at this, she turned her head away sheepishly "I like you a lot too Zuko." He lifted his hand under her face and turned it to be looking at him again a grin spreading across his mouth "that's Prince Zuko to you" he said pulling back and feigning a face of superiority. She quickly pushed him backward onto the mattress a wide smile returning to her face as she saw his eyes widen when he fell backward with an "oof" onto the bed and she landed with her hands on his chest braid falling over to dance lightly on his collar bones. Leaning down to whisper into his ear she spoke softly "actually it's banished Prince Zuko, nice try though." She then pulled back the smile still plastered across her face as he pouted and only supplied her with an "ouch!" As a reply. Leaning down she kissed him again on his pouted lips to which he only pouted more resulting in them both laughing. 

Yawning she moved off his lap and pushed back towards the head of the bed and slid her feet under the covers leaving him to get up and shake his head at her jokingly. Once again thinking that meant it was time for him to go Zuko got up preparing to give her a goodnight kiss and see her in the morning but her hand shot out from where she was laying on the bed and patted the spot next to her and that of course was very well received by Zuko whose face instantly brightened as he climbed back on the bed and slid beneath the covers to be next to her. How he had climbed into bed and slipped under the covers had left him shorter than Katara on the bed so instead of moving up he opted to hug her waist and put his head on her chest her cool skin being warmed by Zuko's cheek. She easily wrapped her arms around his shoulders surprised at how absolutely natural this felt, sliding her hand up into his hair yet again and running her fingers through it. As they lay there in the dark she eventually heard Zuko's breathing even out and he began to let out small snores, still stroking her hands through his hair she thought about how easily he had worn her down and gotten her to like him. Him and how he acted around her, selflessly always trying to make her laugh or smile and even though they were heading into this battle she was happy to know that she would have someone she could trust by her side. She knew that the fire prince who lay with her could be dangerous, yes, but so beautiful too.


End file.
